It seems lately the news on the Cup circuit is all about the Busch brothers. Older brother Kurt Busch completed the rare All Star, Coca-Cola 600 sweep, the seventh time that has occurred. The 600 victory was Kurt Busch’s second of the season, and gave him another 10 potential chase bonus points. The older Busch brother is off to his best start since his championship year in 2004
Including the All Star race, Kurt and Kyle Busch had won four of the last five races heading into Pocono last weekend, with Kyle at second place and Kurt in sixth in the points standings.

Kyle made a bit of NASCAR history last weekend at Pocono by becoming the youngest driver ever with 200 Cup race starts. He started Sunday in grand style, starting from the pole, his second pole of the season and the seventh of his career. He started his 200th Cup race at 25 years, one month and four days. The previous youngest was Brian Vickers at 25 years, 11 months and three days.
Through his first 199 Cup races, he has 18 wins, 60 top fives and 93 top 10s. Kyle has won at least one race in each of his six full seasons on the Cup circuit. Since 1972, the modern era, when NASCAR reduced the number of races in its schedule, six other drivers have won as many races in their first 200 starts. Jeff Gordon leads with 45 wins, Jimmie Johnson had 27, Darrell Waltrip 25, the late Davey Allison won 19 races in 191 Cup starts, Tony Stewart 19, Rusty Wallace 18.
Kyle has made the Chase for the Sprint Cup three of his first six seasons on the circuit. A winner in whatever he drives, he is the reigning Nationwide series Champion, and has five Nationwide wins so far this season. Despite his heavy duty lobbying to team owner Joe Gibbs Racing President J. D. Gibbs, JGR management has declined to run him in the full Nationwide circuit again this season.
This past off-season he became a serious participant in the business end of the sport when Kyle Busch Motorsports began campaigning two trucks on the Camping World Truck Circuit for the first time this season. He has driven in five truck races for his team so far this season and won twice.
The young man just loves to race, since he began a full schedule of racing on the Camping World Truck circuit in 2001 at age 16, he has 18 Truck Series wins, an impressive 35 wins, and one championship in the Nationwide Series, and 18 Cup wins to date. A total of 71 wins on NASCAR’s top three series, and Busch just turned 25 May 2. It’s hard to imagine how he finds enough hours in the day, much less the energy to handle all the travel, and wear and tear of the huge number of laps of competition.
The business end has demanded unwanted time and attention from Kyle like every other race team owner in the current tough economy. When he began his truck racing teams, beside building a business for the future, the idea was to have some fun and give employment and opportunity to some young up-and-comers, mechanics and fabricators who had been laid off due to cutbacks on other race teams. His major sponsor for his truck effort was Miccosukee Casinos, which are owned by a Florida Indian tribe. Unfortunately, the tribal council recently voted out their pro-NASCAR leadership and discontinued their sponsorship of racing activities. This has forced Kyle Busch Motorsports to cut back to just one active truck in competition.
Through it all Kyle Busch has done his best to assume the mantle of the driver fans love to hate. Controversy seems to be his middle name. Hardly a week goes by without a dustup with another driver. The most recent have been teammate Denny Hamlin and Jeff Burton. Busch just eggs them on, bows to the crowd and continues to win races.
Oh yes, they’re not all Busch haters, Kyle recently found time to propose marriage to long time fiancé Samantha Sarcinella. A December wedding is planned.
Next up is the Heluva Good 400 from Michigan International Speedway on Sunday. Mark Martin is defending race winner. The legendary David Pearson leads the way at Michigan with nine wins and ten poles.
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